Political Buzz » cell phones

Eide gets her way: Stronger cell-phone crackdown passes

Jordan Schrader — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:17:52 +0000

The final day of the legislative session brought Sen. Tracey Eide a victory on her top priority – a crackdown on driving while talking on the phone.

A bill that didn’t have the votes in the House to pass last week won easy approval there tonight, 60-37.

The House passed the tougher Senate version of the bill allowing police to pull over drivers for using a phone handset to talk or send a text message. Both are already illegal, but are secondary offenses, meaning police can only ticket drivers for them if they’ve pulled them over for …

Cell phone bill heads to negotiations

Jordan Schrader — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:40:20 +0000

The Senate has refused to go along with the House’s watered-down version of cell-phone restrictions for drivers.

The bill coming from back from the House bans phone use by young drivers and allows police to pull over drivers for text messaging – but not for making phone calls.

Sen. Tracey Eide told me just before the House vote she’d reluctantly go along despite wanting to keep cell phone handsets out of drivers’ hands altogether, but she and fellow senators decided to fight.

Now we’ll see if they can work out a deal before the end of the …

Cell phone ban remains whole

Jordan Schrader — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:30:19 +0000

The proposed cell phone ban for drivers weaved around an attempt to dilute it today in the House Transportation Committee.

Rep. Dan Roach proposed eliminating the part of the bill that allows police to pull people over for talking on a handheld phone while driving. Drivers now can’t be ticketed for phone use unless they have been pulled over for another violation, like speeding.

Roach said a cell phone conversation is no different from talking to a passenger, eating or putting on lipstick, all of which are legal.

The committee rejected the amendment on a voice vote, then …